Women and Weights: Resistant to Resistance Training?

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has published its new guidelines for exercise prescription. These include more detailed recommendations for resistance exercises that improve muscular fitness. Good muscular fitness, in turn, improves cardiometabolic health and prevents functional limitations and osteoporosis. In addition to disease prevention, it is known that resistance training improves body composition: larger muscle mass through weight training creates a bigger portion of ‘fat free mass' and thus, proportionately decreases the fat mass in one's body. It also burns more calories further decreasing one's fat mass. It is recommended that we work our major muscle groups 2-3 days/week with different intensity guidelines for strength, endurance, and power. In addition, there are now different guidelines for appropriate repetitions and sets for novice, intermediate, and experienced weightlifters.

In general, resistance training refers to working against weight to improve muscle strength and/or endurance. Resistance can be created in different ways, with or without equipment. One can work against one's own body weight or gravity such as doing push-ups where one uses the upper body muscles to lift one's body weight against gravity. The so called ‘toning' exercises in group exercise classes usually work different muscles against gravity. One can also create resistance with different equipment such as bands to increase resistance against gravity. However, commonly when we think of resistance exercise, we think of weight training. In this type of training, weight training machines or free weights provide the resistance against which the muscles work. As weight training can be an important part of women's exercise routines, I asked Joy, an experienced fitness instructor, how she inspires her clients to enter the weight room. I was quite astonished with her answer.

‘I hate weight training. This is my dirty little secret,' she confessed, ‘I know the benefits of weight training... or as it is correctly termed: resistance training... but I still find it difficult and boring. I have extensive training, education and twenty years of experience in fitness as an instructor, trainer of instructors, and fitness instruction teacher, so my little confession is probably surprising to most.'

While I was surprised to hear Joy's confession I was also relieved: I remember the countless times I have stood by the entrance to a weight room thinking which machines should I use and then decided to use none at all. Instead I train my muscles in other ways that I find more meaningful. Joy described resistance training as tedious and limited, ‘being confined to a stuffy weight room and the limiting movements of machines, free weights and cables is often boring, difficult and sometimes painful. Even using balance equipment, banded resistance and other apparatus modalities, the principles are the same: counting repetitions, adding sufficient resistance, and a dull, meaningless format.' Joy or I did not think the equipment too complicated and also had a lot of experience in devising weight training programs, but we could also imagine that a beginning exerciser who enters a weight room the first time, might not even know which way to seat herself into the machines, let alone to determine the appropriate set, repetitions, and amount of weight.

In her study, Shari Dworkin found that women were intimidated by the weight room in the gym, because it was populated mainly by men who seemed to readily know what to do. She also discovered that many women didn't feel like they needed to be stronger and the ones who did weight train, did not train much. Why don't women want to be stronger?

Looking more closely at what women mean by ‘strength' provides some answers. The official definition of (absolute) muscle strength is the maximum amount of force one can exert. For example, how much weight one can lift in one attempt. That is why improving muscle strength requires a person to lift very heavy weight but only a few times (e.g., 1-3 times). In everyday life one needs strength, for example, to lift a very heavy box once. Muscle endurance, in turn, refers to muscles' ability to contract and relax repeatedly. We train muscle endurance by lifting a moderate amount of weight several times (e.g., 20 times). In everyday life, one needs muscle endurance to perform repeated tasks: lift a child repeatedly, lift up bags several times, lift our legs several times. Weight training machines can be used to train both strength and endurance. They are designed to exercise one muscle or muscle group (e.g., biceps or triceps in the upper arms, deltoids at the shoulders) at a time to provide maximum specificity for the training: to make sure that one is training the intended muscle. However, we seldom use only one muscle when we have to act against resistance in our daily lives. Even opening a heavy door requires one to use several muscles in the arm and the upper back. This means that while weight machines can effectively train a particular muscle, the strength or endurance gain is not always translatable to improved performance in everyday life.

It was the usefulness of weight training that Joy was concerned with when she found resistance exercise meaningless. She provided an example: ‘How many times in a day, if ever, do you lift bags of groceries laterally out and straight upward from the sides of your body? This does not appear to be a functional movement used in daily life. Yet that is a typical deltoid lift that trains the medial deltoid efficiently'. She continued that ‘the deltoid muscles are a relatively small band of muscles on the top of the shoulder, so isolation exercises performed to strengthen these muscles can be discouraging, as it takes very little weight to provide sufficient challenge and this may cause feelings of embarrassment or inadequacy, when lifting beside others who are using much heavier weights.' While Joy and I might find the function of weight training, what it can help us to do, problematic, many women do not refer to strength in terms of their bodies' capacity, but rather strength is related to how their bodies might look as a result of weight training.

In Dworkin's study, women were afraid of lifting (too much) weights because they became ‘bulky.' I also found that women in aerobics classes considered ‘toning' exercises effective as they, like weight training, definitely trained one area of the body at the time. While these exercises were boring and often performed in rather ‘abnormal' and uncomfortable positions, they helped to ‘tone' the ‘flabby' areas of the body: the underarms, the abdominals, the ‘lower half.' No one, however, wanted to look ‘too muscular,' but rather toned muscles were lean and tight, not big and bulky. There seemed to be a very fine line between being ‘too big' and being toned. Some women even talked about starting weight training, but then got 'too big' and stopped. In these accounts, resistance training is connected to the looks of the body, not the functional capacity of the body or what the muscles can help us do in everyday life. Why are we so concerned about becoming 'too bulky' when having stronger muscles is clearly helpful in everyday life?

My own research suggests that the most common reason we as women exercise is to attempt to shape our bodies into the ideal feminine form: the toned, tall, lean, young body. Whether we do this on a conscious level or not, we are influenced by images in the media of tall, lean, toned, tanned, young female models, and see the marketing for diet, exercise, and cosmetic as solutions to attain such an ideal body. Having 'big' muscles, particularly in the upper body, is a part of a masculine, not ideal feminine, body. Why do we believe this is the case?

Biologically, both women and men need musculature to move their bodies. The muscles will become bigger in size, they hypertrophy, when there are trained. Hypertrophy of human muscles is a result of an increase in muscle fiber size, not an increase in the amount of muscle fibers. So called anabolic hormones promote muscle hypertrophy. For example, testosterone and growth hormone are the body's natural anabolic hormones. In general, female bodies contain less testosterone than male bodies. Nevertheless, training muscle fibers by increasing the weight (force) against which they have to work, will result in hypotrophy as the muscles now have to use more fibers to be able to overcome the force. In addition, all muscles will become bigger in size when they are trained. Consequently, there is nothing unnatural about women having muscles, also upper body muscles, although our muscles, in general, might not grow as big as male muscles due to smaller amounts of testosterone. If it is natural to have muscle hypotrophy, why don't we want to show off our muscles?As having muscles is natural and increasing their fitness is good for health, obviously our fear of a muscular look is more socially than biologically based. We want to conform to what is established as a normal, feminine body in our society: toned, lean, long, and young. We are willing 'to sculpt the body,' but there is a limit to the size of musculature that most women are willing to build, as this does not portray the ideal feminine form. It is, nevertheless, difficult to have the ideal body and still function in contemporary life. Consider the fashion industry and the difficulties models have maintaining their body shapes. I heard a story of one model who started dance lessons to stay thin, but had to stop because her muscles became visible and thus, unsuitable for her profession. As the feminine body ideal is impossible to live up to, we should not base our fitness training on such an arbitrary premise. It is important to remember that the current feminine body ideal has not always been considered ideal. Thus, as it is socially rather than biologically based, it can be changed. We can all be part of this change by promoting exercise practices differently.

Some fitness instructors console us that, with the female hormonal make-up, it is impossible for women to have big muscles and thus, we can train them as much as we like without the fear of 'bulk.' Female muscles, nevertheless, will hypertrophy or grow in size, when there are trained. However, improving one's muscle fitness should not be based on an assurance of no visible muscle size, but rather a celebration of the abilities that increased muscle fitness can provide. In addition, as Joy would assert, we could think what we want the muscles to do for us rather than what they should look like. She concludes:

'I still think there may be another way or perhaps better ways to achieve the same or similar health related benefits without the tedium and discomfort of traditional weight training routines, and the potential social issues connected with ideal feminine body. However, strength gains from resistance training are easily measured and this is why it is currently the gold standard in training the muscles.'She does not have any immediate alternatives but she calls for some creative solutions: 'It is very important,' she reminds, 'to be honest with oneself to determine the reason why we exercise, whether for illness prevention, general health and function, physical appearance, or some combination thereof. Perhaps as a starting point for change, we can look into alternative forms of functional movement.'

What are these alternatives? That is a point for continued discussion on resistance training.

Ok first off if you don't know how to use a weight machine ask. I'm sure one of the many men would love to offer a woman some help with the machines. Plus if I recall most machines have instructions on them. If they don't go online type in the name of the machine and I'm certain there will be detailed instructions on how to properly use the machine. Why are you so intimidated by a room full of men? You wouldn't walk out of board room because it was full of men why would you walk out of the weight room?
On to your next point weight training is not boring I happen to find it very interesting and fun to do. How is it much different than standing around doing aerobics to music? You can bring an ipod or a friend to have fun with while you do it.
You also questioned usefulness of the weight training saying that the machines only exercise one muscle group. If you don't like that about machines, then I suggest doing free weights which act much more like those bags of groceries you're so concerned with. I find my weight training extremely useful, I'm able to do way more now that I've been weight training than ever before like lift heavy bags.
You then mentioned women were embarrassed when they lifted weights. Why should they feel embarrassed by what they're lifting? Everyone started off lifting so called whimpy weights they're not going to judge you negatively. Especially if you're a women; you're not expected to lift heavy weights so really who cares. Also, if you're targeting a specific muscle that can't handle a lot of weight period the people around you ought to know enough to realize you're working that muscle because they work it as well with just a little weight.
Now for your so called ideal female form, we don't want to get bulky? Seriously, that's the excuse? I happen to love, adore my muscles and I want them to get bigger and stronger. My muscles never got toned until I started weight training, all the aerobics and dance moves in the world didn't do that. For the record my muscles are sexy! I get so many compliments on them from men and women alike!
Challenge this ridiculous idea and be a strong woman. I mean really do you want to always ask hubby to open the jar of pickles for you? Do you always want to beg the cute guy down the hall to help you move your couch? Do you want to rely on AAA to come change a tire because you're too weak to get the nuts off yourself? (When my dad tried to teach me to change a tire I actually was incapable of doing it because I was too weak to get the nuts off. It was horrible!). Do you want to live your life as a weakling? Let's stop making excuses and lift those weights!

I may be one of few men who LIKE muscle on women, but that's also no reason to ignore what I say: women need it as much as men, and it makes them look good as much as it does men. Yes, muscles generally grow when trained with ACTUAL resistance. NO, you won't become a steroid-guzzling shemale freak (unless by choice, naturally). In actuality, you'll have the "tone" you were looking for and lose most of the fat; you'll be more curvy and shapely, but with a smaller waist and less jiggly arms.

Zumba, treadmills, Weight-Watchers and other blatant excuses that fuel your avoidance of actual muscle training should be thrown out the window. So should:

You, the reader, can if prompted most likely come up with fast remedies for every single excuse above.

Listen, cupcake, I've been training for a few years now and training my girlfriend the same way-just with somewhat lighter weight. After about a year, she's dropped two dress sizes and has legs that her friends and mother envy to no end (they being of the lazy and self-excused variety). And she agrees with me-we both want as much physical power as we can gain, and LIKE the look it gives us. We feel energetic, happy, and always like the challenge and pain because of the immense reward we know it gives us-lifted butts, juicy legs, no more pinched nerves and back aches, physical confidence, chests that pop further out... How many times did women actually want to walk around the beach in a two piece after finishing a full trimester of Zumba? Seriously? I don't care if it's the latest "Brazilian" craze. Besides, if women here ACTUALLY wanted to look like Brazilians, they would at least use squatting racks and heavy weight to gain size in their legs and butt.

Lift weight, learn more movements for more muscles and look amazing. Keep on the cardio garbage and you'll end up with no muscle, a freakish covering of fat on your bones, and yet ANOTHER failed diet/exercise regimen that you explain to people as a function of genetics and age. Your genes and age are what you make of them, and what you challenge them to be.

Last word: that waifish, thin, toned ideal is in arrested development-it's only one step toward the theoretical ideal: that of an older, wiser, stronger woman more fully developed in muscle and maturity. Way more attractive.

For some reason when women go to the gym they want to be doing what a whole bunch of other women are doing. Hence, aerobics, step, zumba, spinning and various other group activities. I've never understood it, as a woman I'm much rather be in the weight room.

I've been lifting weights for years, and I'm not bulky at all. Just thin, lean and healthy.

I used to find weight lifting really boring, even though I knew the benefits. I'm not usually that put-off by being the only female in a room full of males. However, I know it can provoke anxiety in women that are not accustomed to it. I see few men in aerobics, pilates or yoga classes. Then you have to convince women that they should lift more than Barbie weights.

I've started training with kettlebells a few months ago. It is a far better investment of time than straight boring cardio or traditional weight lifting. I lost noticable fat within a few weeks. I do bodyweight stuff on top of that. If I need to supplement my training in a few months with barbells, I'll do that.

As far as the comments about how many weight lifting movements are not true to life, niether is prolonged running/ aerobics.

I personally think that weight lifting/resistance training is by far one of the most effective ways to stay healthy, strong, and even better, lean. Either men or women, this kind of training will always give you a huge amount of benefits mentally, and much more, physically.